Long title, right? Well it could have continued on...but then I would have no use for this post anymore. Any who, as promised I am back to writing a legitimate review over an anime. This time, I have decided to go with an anime that recently finished airing a few months ago titled, "Kuragehime."
This anime really holds an interesting concept. It is centered around Tsukimi Kurashita, a socially awkward girl who can't handle situations in which she is confronted by "hipsters", "the stylish", or anyone whatsoever. She is madly in love with Jellyfish and he room is coated in drawings that she had done herself over the years. She lives in an all female residency with other girls who also hold strange obsessions. These girls include Chieko (obsessed with traditional Japanese dress and dolls), Mayaya (obsessed with "Records of Three Kingdoms"), Banba (obsessed with trains), and Jiji (obsessed with mature, older men.) Quite a collection of people, huh?
The story starts out with Tsukimi admiring a jelly fish in a nearby pet store. It is to her surprise that the jelly fish happens to be placed in a tank with another jelly fish that can ultimately cause the other to die if placed together. Tsukimi quickly wants to correct this mistake and makes an attempt to tell the man working at the pet store. However, she notices at the last moment that he was a hipster, and instantly felt herself freeze up and was unable to speak.
However, her knight in shining armor comes, well...a "princess" as she put it. Her enters Kuranosuke Koibuchi, probably the most attractive person in this show and it is a boy. No, no, this beautiful girl in the image above truly is a boy. I didn't even believe it at first, I had a mini heart attack when I realized that even when he is dressed as a boy, he is still prettier than almost every single other character. The only exception is when he dresses up Tsukimi, which will be explained later.
Either way, Kuranosuke manages to help Tsukimi out of her predicament and buys the jellyfish for her so that she can properly take care of it. He, in turn, stays the night in which she discovers he is a man.
Normally for a girl who is capable of living on her own, such a thing would be no issue. The only problem is, their residency, known as Amamizukan, does not allow men. Only women are allowed inside. This causes Tsukimi to have a major episode and panic about how she can hide him. He simply replies that he would just come as a woman every time he wanted to visit and she objects. You later find out that these socially awkward girls can't even stand to talk to fashionable people and they tense up when around them, not knowing what to do or say. This causes much controversy whenever Kuranosuke comes to visit Tsukimi.
However, over time the girls find out that their residency is going to be torn down in order to make room for hotels and shopping centers. Since they do not technically own the complex since it belongs to Chieko's mother who is willing to sell it to the people wishing to tear it down, they need to find a way to raise the money themselves in order to buy it themselves and prevent the destruction of their home.
This being the case, Kuranosuke gives them all make over in order to boost their confidence to stand up for what they want, which ultimately does not go well and they all bail out of social anxiety.
Following this, they try to come up with many different methods in which they can raise money, one of which is making stuffed jelly fish to sell at a flea market in which everyone seems to fall in love with.
Plots thicken, love forms, some typical stuff just in a different idea from the norm.
Oddly enough, over time Tsukimi and Kuranosuke develop the idea to start a fashion line in which they will create close that will be based off of the unique shapes of jelly fish. Their plan goes well and they end up designing a few gorgeous gowns.
I must say though, with this series I found myself anxious for the next episode to come out. It was a thrill to wonder what would happen week after week. My only objection is, the series just ended like that. I wasn't even aware it was an ending at all. It just cut off. When I discovered it was the season's end, I raged because it left so many questions. It was a bad place to stop at in simple words. However, I heard rumors there is to be a season two...and I will be disappointed if there is not one.
On to themes behind this anime. What is glorious about it is that it gives you the sense that everyone is beautiful in their own way. Despite what you may think, somewhere, there will always be something that is beautiful about yourself, you just need to reach inside and look for it.
That is what I love about Kuranosuke's character. He is trying to teach these girls about their beauty and that they need to love themselves a little more and that beauty is possible if they just try and they shouldn't look over the qualities that make them unique.
On another note, all of these terms and actions and as to why the characters are the way they are is displayed through Tsukimi's jelly fish, Clara. This allows a deeper understanding for the storyline.
All in all, this anime is fantastic. You are crazy not to love it. I just give warning to the abrupt ending. This anime pulls you in and makes you feel wonderful inside and shows you never to doubt yourself, but the ending will have you upset because you feel that you never want this feeling to end. But don't worry, it won't.
P.S: Amamizukan, the residency of the girls in this series, it actually based off of a real place.
Their building was referenced off of the real life building, Nipponkan, which is an all male residency home in Japan.
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